by Katie Reus
“Just Justus for right now.” She desperately needed to see him and since she knew her brothers were alive, she was okay seeing him first.
Greer nodded and quietly left the room with promises of getting her bagged blood. Less than twenty seconds later, Justus strode into the room, his eyes bright. “Cynara,” he rasped out, sitting on the bed beside her. “You’re awake.” He gently took her hands in his and brought them to his mouth reverently. So unlike the lethal warrior she’d seen in action not long ago. Closing his eyes, he kissed her fingertips.
She withdrew her hands only so she could cup his face. She needed to touch him. “I heard you fed me. Thank you.”
“I would bleed myself dry for you.”
To her horror, tears leaked out and she quickly dashed them away. “How do you always say the perfect thing?”
“I’m not trying to. I simply love you.” There was so much raw honesty in his words.
And he deserved the same from her. She’d been a damn coward. Well, no more. “I love you too.” She’d thought she was going to die, and there was no way she was denying this any longer. She’d almost died before—more than once—but this time had been different. She had something to fight for now, and she’d been a coward for too long where Justus was concerned.
His eyes widened as he shifted closer to her, his eyes vampire amber now. “Did I hear you correctly?”
“You heard me, old man.” She half-smiled at the spark in his gaze. “I love you. I love you so much it hurts.”
Before she could say any more, he crushed his mouth to hers just as Greer stepped inside the room.
“Justus!” Greer had a tray of various bags of blood, no doubt different types. “I told you she needed her rest.” Greer looked at him, all disapproving healer. “I expected more from you.” Oh yeah, that was definite disappointment.
To Cynara’s surprise, Justus’s cheeks flushed ever so slightly. “She loves me.”
At that, Greer smiled and set the blood on the dresser top next to the tray of water. “Your brothers and their mates will be up in less than five minutes. It’s as long as I can keep them away. Make sure she’s fed.” She gave Justus a pointed look before closing the door and leaving them in privacy.
Cynara didn’t care if her brothers walked in on them kissing. She grabbed Justus and pulled him to her, kissing him again. The world had apparently changed in an instant.
She was going to claim the vampire she loved—maybe not this instant, but as soon as possible. They were going to face this new world together.
Chapter 21
Greer stepped out of the bedroom where two injured wolf shifters were now sleeping peacefully—basically healed up at this point. Thankfully shifters healed at a rapid rate compared to humans, so even though the wolves had been burned they were almost back to normal. If they’d been human, they wouldn’t have survived the dragon fire.
She, however, was beyond the point of exhaustion. Sighing, she leaned against the door, closing her eyes for a long moment. Cynara had visited with her brothers and their mates a couple hours ago, but they’d finally let her be. And of course Justus hadn’t left her side. Which was good. His presence alone was positive for Cynara.
Reaper had been in and out of the house, a solid presence whenever she saw him. She’d asked for supplies in the beginning and he’d gotten them. She’d asked to be kept up to date on the city—so he kept her up to date. The male was nothing short of amazing.
“Greer.” Reaper’s voice made her eyes fly open. He strode down the hall on silent feet, looking every inch the predator he was. It was like he simply appeared out of nowhere whenever she thought about him. “When’s the last time you ate?”
The fact that she had to think about her answer said a lot for how busy they’d been. Various shifters had set up triage homes around the city for humans and supernaturals, keeping them separated, as supernaturals could be volatile when injured. Not to mention the human hospitals thankfully were open and operating. But the entire city was in lockdown, with King having taken over all law enforcement. This was a supernatural-run city now and everyone was still adjusting. She’d checked in with some of her friends, including Christian, and everyone was doing as well as could be.
“I had some fruit and yogurt earlier.”
His frown deepened as he came to stand directly in front of her, inspecting her closely. “That was this morning. You have been running yourself ragged for forty-eight hours straight. You are getting some food and then sleep.”
She shifted slightly under his knowing gaze. “Reaper—”
“This is not up for discussion. Everyone is stable in this house. You are a healer. If you do not take care of yourself, you won’t be able to help anyone else. Besides, the two wolves and Cynara are the only ones left. They are going to recover.”
He was right. He was absolutely right, and the truth was that she was exhausted. But part of her was afraid to stop for even a moment, because then she would have to think about the insanity of what had happened. The fact that humans knew about supernaturals now. The fact that the entire world had changed in a moment. Now supernaturals were out to humans, and half the world—maybe even more—had been decimated. As in, billions were now gone. So much death and destruction. So many lives lost.
She closed her eyes for a moment and tried not to think about that. Not yet anyway. She pushed up from the door and leaned on him when he offered an arm around her shoulders. He was a rock right now and she would take it. He smelled of sunshine and…home. “How bad is it?”
“Things are…interesting. I have not been awake long enough to gauge how bad things are but according to King, he says it could be worse.”
She snorted as they reached the top of the stairs. “Things could always be worse.”
Downstairs she found a handful of her friends, including Bo and Nyx, sitting at the center island. She smiled tiredly at the two of them.
“Sit,” Bo ordered even as he headed for the refrigerator and started pulling out a bunch of food.
“I will feed her,” Reaper growled, immediately taking over and starting to put things in the microwave.
Greer was exhausted but still managed to smile at his bossy tone. She really shouldn’t like it but she did. Just as she admired his courage and protectiveness. She’d been wrong about him, she realized. She’d jumped to conclusions because she hadn’t understood that strange attraction to him. But he’d stepped up to the plate when he hadn’t needed to. He’d defended the city. Defended her. He could be as arrogant and obnoxious as he wanted.
“Bo, I heard you managed to piece back a lot of the city with your gift.” Bo was mated to Nyx, the daughter of Chaos. And Nyx tended to create actual chaos wherever she went—breaking things on a small and sometimes massive scale. Luckily Bo had the gift of literally fixing things. If glass broke, he could put it back together. And apparently the entire city.
He nodded. “I’ve helped mend the city as best I can. But there was a lot of structural damage and I still have work to do. I’ve focused on the necessities and have been back and forth between here and Biloxi, helping Finn and his pack. It’s too exhausting to do it all at once. I can’t afford to be completely drained right now. Not when there are far too many unknown threats out there. Not when I have Nyx and our daughter to worry about.”
“Is there any news on Brennus and his clan?”
“No.” Reaper slid a plate of delicious-smelling food in front of her—a dark green salad, grilled chicken topped with tomatoes and mozzarella cheese, and a side of wild rice and mixed vegetables. “Brennus and his clan have created their havoc and got what they wanted. A new world and dead humans.”
“You think that’s what they wanted?” She couldn’t understand why anyone wanted this chaos.
He paused once before nodding. “I believe so, yes. I also do not think things went as well as they planned. Many cities are still standing, and while supernaturals are in charge…it is whoever saved the cities that
are now running things. Not his clanmates. We should expect an attack from his clan at some point. They created this havoc for a reason and they are not done yet.”
Bo nodded in agreement. “The Stavros pack is on alert for that, as well as Justus’s coven and anyone involved in the worldwide alliances of supernaturals.”
Greer dug into her food, listening as they continued talking, but not contributing at this point. She wasn’t sure how long she sat there eating—because as soon as she finished one plate, Reaper gave her another. She felt as if she’d eaten the contents of the entire fridge. And her energy reserves still weren’t completely filled up. The last two days had taken so much from her. That was the real weakness in being a healer—the more she gave, the more exhausted she became, making her more vulnerable in general. But she’d been willing to take the risk of being weak to help so many people.
As she pushed her final plate away from her, Ian and Fiona stepped into the room along with Rory, Liberty and Javier, who all looked in much better spirits now that they’d gotten to see Cynara earlier. From what she’d gathered from Bo, they’d been out patrolling the grounds and neighborhood, making sure everything was secure.
To her surprise, Ian stepped up to Reaper and they did a sort of fist-bump-then-hug type of thing. Wait…what was that all about?
“Hey, so what did you think?” Fiona asked as she grabbed a bottle of wine from one of the cabinets.
Greer blinked once, and through the haze of her exhaustion realized Fiona was talking to her. “About what?”
The powerful, elegant dragon paused, her fingers wrapped around the neck of the bottle. “The…news report.”
“What news report?”
“Ah.” Fiona turned away and mumbled something as she grabbed a glass. The others wouldn’t look at Greer.
Greer glanced around the island, then focused her gaze on Reaper. “What news report?” The last two days she’d been so focused on healing everyone that she’d managed to gather only snippets of what was going on around the world. Whenever she’d asked Reaper for updates, he’d given them to her.
And while she most definitely cared, at the same time she’d had to keep her focus on the here and now. On who she could help live. Which meant she hadn’t been able to allow any headspace to worry about the rest of the world. On how many had truly died. On how many beautiful, bright lives had been snuffed out because of greed and evil.
Reaper looked unconcerned as he said, “You and I are apparently on the news.”
“We are?”
Sighing, Ian pulled out his phone and a moment later slid it across the island to her. “You guys made quite the spectacle. Hell, you all did. It’s a few minutes into the feed.”
Greer pressed play and turned down the volume as a local newscaster, who she was pretty sure was supernatural, reported on what had happened in New Orleans and other places around the world. Only this broadcast included a warning that images would not be suitable for younger viewers. There were scenes spliced together showing various supernatural creatures working together to fight dragons burning everything in sight. Some places she recognized—Edinburgh, London, Rio de Janeiro. At the end of the first video, the woman came back on the screen and then announced that the next video had been filmed in New Orleans.
Greer stared as the video feed started showing Reaper destroying that first dragon. The angle was clearly from a rooftop, and though the image trembled a little, whoever had recorded it had done a decent job of capturing his savage beauty. His brilliant purples and golds showed up, making him appear otherworldly, beautiful, compared to the dull gray dragon intent on killing everyone. Oh—maybe that was why Ian had fist-bumped him. He must know they were related now.
The video shifted to Cynara and Justus in action—and Greer thought Cynara looked like a badass superhero. Next was the flaming blue female who Greer had recently learned was a phoenix. Apparently the female—Léonie—had lived here for over a hundred years and was very entrenched in New Orleans. She’d only half-shifted, something Greer hadn’t realized was possible. Then again, she hadn’t known that phoenixes existed to begin with. She’d thought they were myths—just like dragons.
The next image was taken from a rooftop with a steady grip on the cell phone or video camera. Flames and smoke licked high into the air, old buildings and new buildings burning, screams and shrieking sirens the background noise. Greer nearly dropped the phone when she appeared on-screen in dragon form. It was weird to look at herself. Her pale green and silver scales looked almost all silver against the backdrop of night and fire. Whoever was filming continued recording as she descended onto Decatur Street and shifted to her human form. Naked.
Welp, her breasts and other intimate areas were blurred out with little black stripes but she was very clearly naked. So…the whole world had seen her nude at this point? Awesome. The recorder zoomed in on her face as she glanced around in horror. Her every emotion was clear.
Suddenly Reaper was in the shot, whoever was filming having missed his shift to human, but they caught him as he strode directly toward her, his expression as fierce as she remembered it. What she didn’t remember was that intense look that said he would destroy the world for her as he cupped her face before crushing his mouth to hers.
The kiss seemed to go on forever, though in her memory it had been over far too quickly. She’d barely gotten a taste of him, but watching them now, their bodies pressed up against each other was… Well, it was hot. She almost felt like a voyeur, and that was her on the screen. For all the world to see. Including her clanmates.
She was a dragon shifter, so used to having to hide what she was that this almost felt like a violation. But it wasn’t. Not really. As she watched Reaper and herself…she felt her cheeks flushing. Clearing her throat, she said, “They sure gathered a lot of videos.” She pushed the phone away, not needing to see any more. She had been there, after all, and it would simply be embarrassing if she got turned on and the others scented it.
“There are similar videos from Biloxi,” Bo said. “Of the Stavros pack kicking ass, mainly. It’s fucking brutal…and beautiful.”
That sounded about right. As she sat there, a dull ache spread across the back of her skull. Sighing, Greer laid her head on Reaper’s shoulder, not even questioning the move. Leaning on him somehow felt right. She felt him jolt slightly but then he seemed to shift into it, kissing the top of her head once as she closed her eyes, trying to wrap her mind around all the news.
She was so damn exhausted and had so many questions. She wanted to know what all the clan leaders were doing across the world, and knew she needed to check in with her own Alpha. She’d spoken to him twice in the last forty-eight hours and he definitely had things under control, but still, everything was different now. “How is King handling the city?” she finally asked, opening her eyes again when there was a lull in the conversation around her.
“As you know, there’s a curfew in effect. Prima is currently out there helping patrol the city and outlying areas with a dozen other dragons,” Rory said.
“No sign of Brennus or his cohorts,” Reaper growled, his annoyance clear.
The others started talking among themselves again, and while she listened sleep started to push at the edges of her mind. She would just close her eyes for a minute.
Reaper shifted slightly so she raised her head. “All right.” His expression was fierce as he looked at her.
She frowned at him. “All right what?”
Wordlessly he leaned down and scooped her up, taking her off guard. She was so exhausted, in a bit of a haze, that she let him manhandle her. At least that was what she told herself even as she cuddled up against him, not caring that he was doing this in front of her friends. She was pretty much beyond caring about much at this point. Especially after some fool had filmed her naked and splashed it for the world to see.
“What are you doing?” she murmured.
“You need sleep. To recharge.”
Igno
ring the avid stares of the other shifters around the island, she started to argue with him but he was right. “Fine. But I can walk.”
He simply snorted. “No one will bother her for at least twelve hours,” he tossed over his shoulder as he left the room, his tone one of a general giving orders. And he definitely expected said orders to be obeyed. “Make that sixteen.”
“You’re very bossy,” she muttered as he reached the bottom of the stairs.
“Someone has to take care of you because you certainly are not taking care of yourself.”
“I’m a grown female.”
“Oh, I know you’re grown.” There was a wealth of heat in his words as he reached the first landing.
Whatever she’d been about to say died, because she wasn’t playing with fire. Not now at least.
It didn’t take him long to reach the third story and she realized that he’d completely bypassed her room and gone straight to his. “Your room?”
“Yep.” He shut the door behind them. “This is where you will be sleeping.”
Why wasn’t she more annoyed by this? Why wasn’t she fighting this? Oh, you know exactly why, that little voice in her head whispered. She wanted this. Badly.
He gently sat her down on the giant bed before heading to the en suite. A moment later she heard water start running. Then he popped his head out of the open door. “All your bath products are in there. You need to shower.”
She lifted an eyebrow, tempted to forget the shower and just pass out on the bed right now. “Are you saying I smell?”
He gave her a dry stare. “You smell like heaven. But a shower will help you sleep.”
She ignored the heaven comment. “You look smug when you’re right.”
“Then I must look smug all the time.” His expression was deadpan, making her giggle.
The little joke surprised her, making him seem almost…not soft exactly, but not so rough around the edges. He cracked a hint of a smile as she laughed. “Fine. And thank you. I really am tired. I need clothes to sleep in though.” While she preferred to sleep naked, that wasn’t happening right now. Not in his bed.